Mayoral Deception

A few months ago, Springfield MO. Mayor Robert Stephens voted "No" on a new Indecent Exposure ordinance.  Initially he had pushed the button to vote "Yes" but after the results were announced and the ordinance was passed claimed that he had inadvertently pushed the wrong button.  This vote followed a period of comments wherein each City Council Member, including Mayor Stephens, gave an explanation as to why they were voting the way they were.   In his monologue, Stephens chastised the supporters of a recent topless rally that had been held in down town Springfield calling their efforts an "epic fail."

He then turned his sights on the public supporters of the new ordinance.  He began throwing insults and accusations of "woman blaming" at the supporters.  This was a misguided and baseless label considering that the supporters were trying to uphold decency, safety, and a family friendly image for their beloved city.  Not to mention, the large majority of supporters for the stricter ordinance were WOMEN!

He also gave a stern reprimand to the local news media for putting forth so much effort on such an issue while he felt there were many more important issues the media ignored. He even held up a copy of the Springfield News Leader citing that the hungry children in our city would be a better use of the council's time.  Many other Council Members also cited hungry children as a more noble cause than public decency even though there was nothing on the agenda about hungry children whatsoever.

Apparently, the hungry children that the mayor was so concerned about only months ago now have to take a back seat as he wastes more of the city's precious time on the issue in an attempt to enlist Councilman Hosmer and his Plans and Policies committee in hopes of repealing the new ordinance citing a possible violation of the 1st and 14th Amendments of the Constitution.  These allegations will fall flat seeing as the same ordinance is in effect in multiple other U.S. cities including St. Louis MO.,  Cape Girardeau MO., and Chicago IL.

Mayor Stephens is also claiming that the new ordinance removed language limiting exposure of male genitalia, effectively making it legal for men to walk around exposed.  This is the same objection that Councilman Hosmer himself made during the debate.  He was quickly shut down by multiple people including Councilman Justin Burnett, the author of the ordinance, who simply read the ordinance out loud to Hosmer proving that it gave men so such liberty.  Perhaps Hosmer and Stephens should try reading it for themselves before making baseless accusations.

Now for things to get really sticky.  Mayor Stephens wrote to Councilman Hosmer on  Monday, October 26; the same day that the ACLU filed a lawsuit that nearly mirrored the Mayor's letter, against the city of Springfield.  The Mayor stated that he had no knowledge of the ACLU's impending lawsuit.  This, however, was contradicted by a statement by Jessica Lawson, who is named in the lawsuit, who claimed that Mayor Stephens knew.  She is also a supporter of the topless rallies as well as the Springfield Slut Walk and is helping to spearhead an effort to have Councilman Justin Burnett, their chosen vessel of blame, recalled from office.

So it appears that Mayor Stephens, aside from turning his back on all those poor hungry children he wasn't even helping in the first place, has conspired with supporters of indecent exposure to incite the ACLU to file a lawsuit against his own city and then lied about it on the evening news.  Perhaps we need to petition for a Mayoral recall instead...